


Between the lines

by orphan_account



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Sexy Zone
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 17:32:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2516045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kento doesn't approach Fuma, and it makes Fuma feel more frustated day by day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [confetti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/confetti/gifts), [and Nada](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=and+Nada), [because both of you helped so much with this](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=because+both+of+you+helped+so+much+with+this).



> Hey everyone! I feel like all my angst from the last few weeks flew into this fic and I am sorry. Please bear with it.

Fuma’s POV

I shot a short look past Shori to where Kento was sitting next to him, slumped in his seat, zapping through songs on his iPod. I only averted my gaze when I caught Shori glancing at me uncomfortably, and quickly focused on the text I was trying to read on my tablet. 

The tension between the three of us had grown steadily over the day, or better over the last few weeks, but now that it was just us on the plane back to Tokyo, having left the guys from A.B.C-Z and Johnny’s West behind in Osaka after the end of our Shounen Club filming there, it was more noticeable than ever.

I meekly tried to remember any words we had exchanged after we had left the venue and only came up with Shori mumbling “Sorry” at me as he had squeezed past me to get to his seat. 

At least I had spent lunch break with Shori and a couple of Kansai Juniors, though, which was more than I could say about Kento. 

Things had been weird between me and Kento lately, and it began to frustrate me increasingly. It was not like we had fought - it was hard to fight when one party resolutely refused to have a conversation longer than four sentences - but there was a heaviness in the way we interacted with each other, if we did at all. 

None of us were happy with the current situation, of course. I knew very well that all of us were frustrated with the recent exclusion of Marius and Sou, and each of us dealt with it in their own way - me with a never leaving underlying anger, turning to bitterness the longer I tried to suppress it, Shori either with complete silence and isolation or with a stream of words and socialization that was untypical for him, obviously his way of distraction from the fact that we were two members short, and Kento… by burying himself under work. 

I was used to this tendency of Kento’s, to flee into work when there were situations he couldn’t deal with, and I had learned to accept that, or so I had thought. Only that this time, things were slightly different, and it made me feel helpless.

I could see from a thousand miles distance that Kento was suffering, not to mention that I actually saw him as good as daily up close at work. I had known Kento for over 6 years and he was like an open book to me in that aspect. I knew exactly what he was thinking just by looking at him.

That he was blaming himself for not having been able to stop what was happening to our band, as the eldest, as the _leader_ ; that he hadn’t been able to protect our youngest from the exclusion of both the first and now the second single, the OST for _Kento’s_ drama. I knew how he felt about that, and not only because it were sentiments that I shared, to a certain point, even though my anger was rather directed against the management than against myself. 

I found myself unable to approach him about it, though. It was weird - watching him suffer day by day, I found my fingers tingling with the urge to reach out to him, to reassure him, to help him in any way, but on the other hand, I found myself unable to do so.

It was all because of Kento shutting himself off so much, I thought angrily. Because of him not leaning on me, not letting me know when he needed me. It made me think that maybe, it was better to not say anything, after all - that maybe, everything I could say would just make it worse, and that maybe, he didn’t want my help at all. That he didn’t need _me_.

That thought was the one hurting the most, and I sighed as I finally gave up all pretense of reading, turning off my tablet and staring out onto the dark sky. Kento and I had always had our ups and downs, these phases when we fought or interacted less, but the idea that we were drifting apart so much that Kento didn’t even want me around was like a punch into my stomach. 

I could not help but wonder, though… Just earlier I had seen Kento laugh with others, having fun with Ryusei-Kun, Non-Chan and Hasshi, and frankly, those times were the only moments when I actually saw him smile honestly these days. 

With others, not with me. 

This perception tied weird knots into my insides, some that felt almost like jealousy, some more like insecurity and others simply like fear of me losing Kento and a friendship I treasured more than I was able to put into words. 

I shot another look over at Kento, noting how his eyes had closed and his breathing had evened out as he had given in to the exhaustion of the day. He looked so tired all the time recently, I thought, grimacing at the familiar feeling of protectiveness clawing at my heart. 

Shori looked up at me and our eyes met for a moment, but I quickly averted my gaze, not wanting to give him a chance to figure out what was going on inside of me. 

My emotions felt like a whirlwind as they were, and I was not ready to share them with anyone, much less with Shori, who panicked at the mere mention of “feelings”.

***

“ _Fuuuuuma-Kun, let’s meet up for dinner ♥”_

I should have known that such an invitation coming from Marius could mean nothing good, but I felt so starved for contact with my younger band mates that I agreed anyways, glad to flee the tense atmosphere with Kento and Shori to hang out with Marius instead. 

These moments with Marius and Sou felt like the only times when the three of us could actually breathe, I had noticed. Whenever Sexy Zone Channel or alikes were filmed, it was like we left all the negative feelings behind for a short while and just returned to being ourselves. Only that as soon as Marius and Sou were gone again, everything seemed to cut even sharper and deeper, and it felt even more suffocating than it usually did. 

Marius was already waiting for me at the restaurant when I arrived, and for a few minutes, we only chatted about trivial things, school and university and whatever stunt Jinguji had pulled at Sexy Natsu Matsuri. 

“I chatted with Shori last night” Marius noted finally, making me raise my eyebrows at him over my glass, holding in throughout my drinking motions. “He said some things that worried me.”

I carefully gulped down the few sips of juice I had taken, remembering how Shori had caught me staring at Kento as I set down my glass slowly. 

“What did he say?” I asked casually.

“I think his exact words were ‘ _You can cut the tension between Fuma and Kento with a knife. Help.’_ ” Marius cited, and I nervously fumbled with my bracelets. “Want to tell me what happened?”

“Don’t worry about us, worry about yourself” I returned, intend on closing the subject with this, but Marius caught me off guard by insisting: “Don’t be like this! Don’t you know that Sou-Chan and I realize that you guys are hurting, too?!”

I looked at him in surprise, and Marius huffed, frowning unhappily as he continued: “We might be only kids to you, but that doesn’t mean you have to pretend to be strong all the time. You told me to lean on you when things are bad. So why won’t you lean on me, too?!”

I was slightly speechless at that, and Marius looked at me pleadingly. 

“Neither Fuma-Kun nor Kento-Kun have to do everything on their own” he pointed out. “How are we supposed to become equal members if you don’t rely on us?” 

“When have you grown up so much?” I murmured, more to myself than to him, and Marius smiled almost proudly. “Go back to that 12-year-old child that can’t articulate himself properly in Japanese, will you?!”

“Stop complaining and tell me what is going on with you and Kento-Kun” he demanded. “Shori keeps whining to me over LINE.”

I sighed, picking up my glass again and drowning the remainder of my orange juice in one gulp. It wasn’t like me to fess up to Marius, of all people, but on the other hand, his words had hit me in a weak place, since I myself had spent weeks wishing for Kento to approach me. It felt almost hypocritical, shrugging Marius off under these circumstances. 

So I placed my glass onto the table again, keeping my eyes focused on it as I admitted, very quietly: “I feel like Nakajima and I are drifting apart. We are not talking anymore.”

“Did you fight?” Marius asked in alarm. 

“No” I groaned in frustration. “I _wished_ we had. It would give me something to work with.”

“Kento-Kun doesn’t like fighting with you, though” Marius noted. “Not with anyone, but especially not with you, because you are important to him.”

“Am I really?” I asked quietly, and Marius blinked at me owlishly.

“Of course you are!” Marius frowned. “You always were. Don’t you know that?!”

“I do” I agreed carefully. “And at the same time… He is not consulting me even though I can see that he is suffering. We promised each other that we would always work together as partners, and yet, he doesn’t even talk to me, and I can’t remember the last time he smiled at me. I just… don’t know what to think anymore.”

“Maybe he is just tired because he is so busy?” Marius suggested, and I snorted. 

“He is willfully trying to be busy” I corrected. “Because this whole situation sucks and none of us are happy.”

“I’m sorry” Marius whispered, and I shook my head firmly, feeling more frustrated with every passing second.

“Why are you apologizing?!” I demanded. “This is not your fault! This is the stupid management fucking everything up to a point where none of us know what’s going on anymore, and none of us should blame themselves for it, neither Nakajima, nor you and Matsushima!” 

“Sorry” Marius repeated, and I sighed, somehow feeling physically exhausted from talking about my emotions.   
“See, this is why I shouldn’t be telling you any of this” I murmured. “I shouldn’t be the one complaining to you.”

“I told you. we kind of know what’s going on even if you don’t say it” Marius pointed out. “Just because you get work and we don’t doesn’t mean you want any of this. And if Fuma-Kun and Kento-Kun drift apart over this, it’s just… none of us want this.”

“Neither do I” I admitted miserably, my throat dry. I wished I still had any juice left. 

“You should talk to him, then” Marius suggested.

“I told you, it doesn’t seem like he wants to talk to me!” I protested, slowly regretting to have said anything at all. “Let’s just forget about it, I just-”

“How can you forget about it?!” Marius said unhappily. “You are in love with Kento-Kun, after all!”

I was about to argue back when his words sank in and I almost choked on air. 

“I… what?!” I demanded, my voice too high for my own comfort, and I could feel the heat in my face and hear my pulse racing in my ears, and it seemed to only serve to Marius’ amusement because he grinned.

“I told you, stop seeing us as kids that don’t know anything” he scoffed. “We know very well what’s going on, okay!”

“Nothing’s going on!” I called, a little too loudly, making people glance at us from the neighboring tables, so I continued in a hushed whisper. “Have you read too many fanfictions or what?! Nakajima and I are just-”

“Don’t tell me you are _just friends_ , because you ‘have driven past the _friend zone_ ages ago’!”

“Is that another quote from Shori?!” I asked in slight horror. 

“Maybe” Marius shrugged, smug.

“Gosh, this is awful!” I groaned. “What do you kids talk about when we are not around?!”

“Isn’t it time for you to admit to your feelings?” Marius sighed, ignoring my input. “Seriously, have you noticed how you are looking at Kento-Kun? And don’t get me started on how he is looking at you!” 

“I am not looking!” I hissed. “Neither is he! _No one is looking!_ ”

“Fuma-Kun!” Marius said indignantly, rolling his eyes like I was the most unreasonable 5-year-old. “You are never going to get over your problems when you are not honest with each other, and with yourself! You might really drift apart if you keep this up!”

Each word was like a knife right to my heart, making my vehemence die down immediately as I considered his words. 

“Do you want that?!” Marius asked.

“No” I said quietly. 

“Then please think about it, honestly” Marius advised. “Then you can-”

“It’s not like I never thought about it” I admitted unwillingly, my face burning as I pointedly looked elsewhere.

It was true, even. More than once had I questioned my own feelings, to the point that I had concluded that yes, Kento might mean more to me than all of my other friends, maybe even to a point that it surpassed the definition of “friendship”. I had firmly decided not to engage into these thoughts further, though, too afraid of what the consequences of a full-fledged crush, if not outright _love_ , might be. 

“Nakajima and I can’t be more than friends” I said out loud, speaking for the first time what I had inwardly told myself countless of times. “Even _if_ we both felt the same way, we cannot act on it, not in our positions. It’s too dangerous. Also, there would be a chance of it not working out, and then we would risk the balance of the band.”

“What balance?” Marius argued, frowning at me. “You just told me you are not even talking to each other. I mean, what do you have to lose?!”

I had no ready answer for that, and Marius sighed. 

“Kento-Kun likes you, too” he argued, his voice almost whiny as he continued. “We can all see how much he wants to be with you. You just have to catch on!”

“I’m not the one who is avoiding him!” I said defensively. “It’s him who-”

“Even if he is, why do you just let him?!” Marius shrugged. “This is not like you. To just give up.”  
“I never said I’m giving up” I protested automatically. 

“Then just go and approach him already! Make him talk to you if he won’t!”

“Stop telling me what to do! You are not in my shoes, you don’t understand.”

Marius pursed his lips angrily at that and I just glared halfheartedly.

“You always do that” he noted. “Whenever people want to help you, you just put your walls up.”

“That’s why I usually don’t interfere with other people’s business” I shot back. “I wait till they come to me and ask for my support.”

“What if Kento-Kun is afraid of coming to you?” Marius asked.

“I never gave him a reason to be” I shrugged. “If he really doesn’t trust me this much…”

“It’s not always a matter of trust, Fuma-Kun” Marius sighed. “He may be insecure just like you are. You don’t know what is going on inside of him.” When I didn’t answer to that, he called in exasperation: “FINE, if you don’t talk to him, I will!”

“If anything I told you leaves this table, I swear to god, Marius-”

“I am just going to ask him what’s wrong, that’s all” he interrupted my threat. “He might be less stubborn than you!”

“Do whatever you want” I groaned. “But don’t you dare repeat anything I told you tonight.”

Marius just hummed, and I was not sure if that counted as a promise, but I was ready to accept it as such, for now. 

***

For a couple of weeks, nothing much changed, apart from Kento becoming progressively more exhausted and his smiles more forced, and I had almost forgotten about that little conversation with Marius in my worry about him. 

That was until one rainy Friday night, I received a sudden call from Kento. I had looked up from my homework to stare at his name flashing up on the screen of my cell phone for almost 10 full seconds before I broke myself out of my daze, finally taking it.

“Nakajima?” I asked, slightly breathless.

“Hey” Kento said quietly, and his voice was strangely thin, speaking of nerves. “Are you out?” 

“I am home” I answered in confusion, throwing a look at the clock, realizing that it was just past 8pm. 

“Is it… okay for me to come over?” he asked hesitantly. “I would like to talk to you.”

“Okay” I nodded, nervously fumbling with the pen in my hand. 

“I… will be over in a few, then” Kento murmured, and I nodded once before realizing that he couldn’t see me. 

“Okay. I will wait” I said out loud, and with a low mumble that I didn’t quite catch, the line went dead. 

I stared at the wall, my blood rushing in my ears as I tried to figure out what had just happened. Kento wanted to _talk_ to me. _Kento,_ who had spent _weeks_ trying to run from a confrontation with me, and now he just…

My first coherent thought was that this must somehow be Marius’ fault. Marius had gone and told him that I was head over heels for him or something along those lines and now Kento was on the way to reject me. No, that was not… he wouldn’t have done that, would he? Marius might be stubborn, but he would not betray my trust like this. 

The other option was that he had told Kento that I was worrying about him, and while that was surely not as dramatic as the my first idea, it still made me feel uneasy. 

I had no more time to ponder about it, though, because in the next moment, the doorbell rang, and I jumped up to get to the door before my mother did. I was pretty sure neither Kento nor I were keen on her kidnapping him to the kitchen for a chat. Or worse, _my siblings_ getting a grip on him. 

“Hi” I greeted him breathlessly as I had successfully reached the door first and pulled it open, revealing fumbly and nervous Kento who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but on my doorsteps in this very moment. I made an inward note to strangle Marius the next time I saw him.

“Hi” he returned, equally breathless as me, even though he had not just run down a set of stairs. 

I quickly stepped aside to let him in, aware that the longer we kept standing in the hallway, the more likely my family was to take a glimpse of what was going on, and luckily, Kento caught on quickly, slipping out of his shoes and following me upstairs without any further prodding. 

I felt only slightly relieved when I closed the door behind myself, glancing at Kento awkwardly standing in the middle of the room like he wasn’t quite sure what he was even doing here instead of taking a seat on the bed like he usually did when he was here. 

“Did anything happen?” I blurted out, making Kento blink at me like a deer caught in the headlights. “You just… it’s unusual for you to suddenly turn up like this. Saying you want to talk.”

Kento tilted his head in agreement before making a face and finally letting himself fall onto my bed with a deep sigh.

“Nothing happened, really” he said, playing with the ring on his finger. “I just… had a talk with Marius.”

“I will kill him” I murmured, making Kento glance at me curiously, and I added belatedly: “Um, I mean… oh?”

Kento’s lips twitched in the ghost of a smile, and I sighed as I plopped down onto my chair, too, facing him. 

“He said you were worrying about me” he admitted at last, biting his lip. “And that I should go talk to you.”

At least he had left out the more compromising details, I thought fleetingly as I very pointedly focused on the seam of Kento’s jeans instead of his face. 

“I am sorry… for making you worry” Kento continued finally, his voice heavy, and it made me look up to catch his eyes, not surprised to find the self-deprecating smile on his lips that I had observed on him countless times over the years that I knew him, and that always made me feel unreasonably angry with him. “I really never seem to do anything right these days. The last thing I wanted was to be a burden to you, on top of everything else.”

“I never said you were a _burden_ to me!” I argued. “Why do you always convince yourself that people are thinking badly about you?!”

“Because there aren’t a lot of people that don’t” Kento frowned. “Especially at the moment, and I can’t even blame them.”

I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm and reasonable even if Kento made it pretty hard for me. 

“You are no burden to me, and I don’t think badly of you in any way” I clarified, because it was the truth and because if Kento kept saying things like these I might need to shake him. “The only thing that bothered me was that I could see you suffering, but you didn’t confide in me. I wanted to help, but you didn’t let me.”

“I’m angry at myself” Kento murmured. “How could I have come to you to whine?”

“Why are you angry at yourself?!” I demanded. “If you are blaming what’s happening in the band on yourself-”

“I should have said or done something to prevent this” Kento said decidedly, his jaw set. “I should have put my foot down, but I was too scared of making things worse. I was too big of a coward, and now things are spiraling out of control, and-”

“ _None of this is your fault!_ ” I argued. “If you are to blame, I am just as guilty! I didn’t prevent it, either!”

“But you stood up” Kento noted. “What you said in Kobe, all the time… you are speaking up. And it’s what the fans need.”

“You are helping in your own way” I reminded him. “You are not like me, and that’s perfectly fine. You support Marius and Sou in the best way you can, and they love you. They _admire_ you and _rely_ on you, and putting your efforts down like this is both unfair to yourself and to them.”

“You are saying this now, but you don’t act like it” Kento whispered, gulping. “You barely looked at me and I just… I figured…”

“What?” I enquired, my heart pounding uncomfortably in my chest. 

“I figured that you were as disappointed with me as anyone else” Kento shrugged, and I could see something glistening in his eyes, and _well fuck_. “That you were keeping your distance because you were annoyed by my presence.”

“That’s not it” I murmured, shaking my head, eyes cast downward to not have to see the tears in Kento’s eyes. 

“I know it’s stupid, but in a way… I always strive for your support” Kento breathed. “And the thought that you could grow to hate me for something I fucked up scares me.”

“Damn, Nakajima!” I groaned. “I’m don’t think I could ever hate you! We are partners, damnit, and when I say the kids rely on you, that’s nothing against how much _I_ rely on you! The only reason why I haven’t yet given up is the fact that you are still with me! So-”

“I keep thinking, though” Kento interrupted me, and his voice was raw from the tears he was still desperately trying to fight, and it almost hurt me physically, this asinine discussion about his most surreal fears. “And just let me say this now because it keeps haunting me and if I don’t say it now I never will… I keep thinking that maybe, if you hadn’t ended up in a band with me, you’d be better off. If it had been Hokuto or Juri-Kun or Yasui-Kun or Morohoshi-”

“Stop it right there, Nakajima!” I almost threatened. 

“I suck as a leader!” he argued. “I keep doing things to turn you against me, and I just-”

“Nakajima, I swear, one more word and I will punch you!”

Kento fell silent at that, and I balled my trembling fingers into fists, trying to take a deep breath and find words. 

“No one could replace you” I said, more honest than I was comfortable with, but I remembered what Marius had said, that we had to talk openly to solve our differences, and after what Kento had just said, I knew that there was no way around being clear with him anymore. “None of my other friends matter to me the way you do. You are completely different from them, and if I am no good at expressing that, then I am sorry. I know I meet them outside of work more regularly than I meet you, but… you might not understand it, but please take my words as they are: It’s _because_ you mean more to me.”

Kento was silent for a moment, before whispering: “I really don’t understand that.”

I took a shaky breath, everything inside of me tightening and fighting what I knew I had to say. 

“I… have been thinking… feeling… some things that scare me” I whispered. “About you, and I feel like… if I spend too much time with you outside of work, you will only continue to grow more important to me, maybe past the point I can handle.”

I closed my eyes at the last words, refusing to open them until Kento had found his voice to answer.

“What… does that mean?”

“What do you think it means?” I asked quietly, forcing my eyes open to meet his gaze, trying to read the emotions behind these brown orbs. I could see shards of confusion and insecurity and something flickering through them, something that almost seemed like hope. 

“It sounds like you are saying you like me” Kento said hesitantly. “As more than a friend, but I know that this can’t be what you are saying.”

“Why?” I asked, having difficulties to bring the words out. “Am I not allowed to like you?”

“It’s less a question of being allowed or not than more a question of if you would” Kento whispered. “And I have always convinced myself that you wouldn’t.”

I considered his words for a moment, trying to understand what he was saying between the lines.

“You thought about this before” I pointed out finally. “About whether I could like you or not.”

“Too often” Kento admitted. 

“Do _you_ like _me_?” I asked, scanning Kento’s face. 

He did not answer, but he didn’t need to - it was written all over his face and I wondered how I had been as stupid to not have see it before. 

My skin was tingling at the admission and I felt dizzy because it seemed like my whole world was moving underneath my feet, twisting and adjusting, opening possibilities that I had never allowed myself to consider. 

Kento and I were silent, Kento probably still afraid to speak up, and me too baffled to do it. I think it took me a whole minute to get to my feet, shakily but without stumbling, Kento’s eyes on me as I made my way across the room and sat down next to him. 

Kento’s hand was sweaty when I reached out for it, lacing my fingers through his and squeezing once. Kento was still watching my face, but I kept my gaze focused on our hands. 

It took another few minutes for either of us to speak. It seemed like the air between us was so raw, so thick with emotions and confusion and insecurities that none of us did quite manage to find words, and though there was probably much more to say, I felt that maybe, this was not the right moment to do it. 

So, instead of picking up on our prior topics again, I squeezed his hand and whispered, almost timidly: “Spend the night. Just stay close to me.” _I need you_. It were the words I didn’t speak, but maybe Kento hurt them anyways, because he hesitantly returned the pressure of my fingers, and a breath I didn’t know I was holding left my lungs when he rested his head on my shoulder. 

“Okay” he whispered, and his voice sounded broken, the millions of shards I had seen in his eyes cutting through his words, making my chest tighten with the pain they conveyed. 

“I… won’t tease you if you cry now” I brought out with some difficulty. I was aware of Kento’s fingers trembling slightly against mine, and I knew that admitting to what he had tonight had brought him to his limits. 

When I heard Kento taking in a staggering breath, I reached out my free hand, wordlessly pulling him against me. I could feel Kento’s tears against the skin of my neck, but considering the silence of the last few weeks, they felt almost healing. 

***

I woke up feeling warm and light. Kento’s head was lying on my arm, causing a tingly feeling in my fingers that would surely become uncomfortable once I moved but was bearable for now. One leg was thrown over both of mine, and his palm was loosely lying on my stomach. His whole body radiated heat, and it felt cozy, making me squirm impossibly closer to him almost without conscious thought. 

Kento’s breath was even in his sleep, making his chest rise and fall slowly, and I reached out to him without thinking. His hair was soft as I gently stroked it back from his face, letting my palm wander further over his soft skin, down the curve of his neck, then following the lines of his upper arm down to his wrist, drawing my thumb over the knuckles of his hand. 

It was then that Kento stirred, his eyelids heavy as he blinked them open, finding my face in sleepy disorientation. 

“Sorry for waking you” I breathed, and Kento only hummed before sliding even closer to me over the mattress, resting his cheek against my chest. I raised my hand, grimacing at the needle-like stings as I moved my fingers, but ignored them in favor of throwing my arm around Kento, embracing him tightly. 

We stayed like that for a little longer, too comfortable to move much, and when I ran my hand through Kento’s soft hair, I had almost thought he had gone back to sleep, but the content smile on his lips gave him away. 

“So… this is not a dream, right?” Kento whispered after a while, and I chuckled. 

“Nope” I answered, burying my nose in his hair for emphasises, taking a deep breath of the scent of his shampoo. 

“So, we are… what are we?” Kento mumbled, and I sighed in disapproval as he tensed, hugging him tighter. 

“Together” I said simply. “That’s all that matters for now, right? That we are one against the shitload of things happening around us.”

“Yes” Kento breathed, relaxing again. “Yes, that sounds good.”

I nodded, pulling away a little to scan Kento’s face. His eyes were still red and puffy from exhaustion, a reminder that not all of our problems would be solved by that one discussion last night, but feeling him against me like this, warm against my side and in my arms, I felt like it was a start. Things could only move forward from here. 

And Kento seemed to agree with that, because he did not stop me when I caught his lips in a tentative kiss that felt like warmness flooding my insides and filling me with everything that Kento meant to me: Security, courage, familiarity, trust, comfort, hope…

… and love. And though it may be no magic formula to make everything right again, it was the best chance at happiness we had. 


End file.
